A Spider-Man Reboot? Good One Sony. Oh, You’re Serious?

The world of entertainment was rocked yesterday when Sony announced that it was killing Spider-Man 4 and was instead now planning to “reboot” the series. What that means is that Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire and the whole gang are out, and Sony is starting over from scratch.

Reportedly they want it to be a “gritty origin story,” because we don’t have enough of those these days, and Raimi says he wishes them nothing but the best for it. Allegedly differences between Raimi and Sony over the villain and general plot of the fourth film are what led to this whole debacle.

SEVEN YEARS. That’s how long it’s been since the original Spider-Man came out. It had an origin story, albeit not a particularly gritty one, but was a thoroughly excellent movie nonetheless. It’s one thing to reboot shitty 80s franchises, but a film series I remember like it was yesterday? What the hell are they thinking?

Money. That’s what they’re thinking. And I’ll be damned if this reboot isn’t going to make ass tons of cash, mainly due to the controversy we’ve just been discussing. It may not make as much as a fourth film would have, but it will be much easier to shoot, as Spider-Man’s origin story has been told already time and time again and they’ll find a director less prone to arguments than Raimi. Rumor has it they’re looking to 500 Days of Summer’s Marc Webb.

Fundamentally, I think this is a film that should never see the light of day. However, I can see the business sense in it for Sony I suppose. But no good movie was ever made simply because a studio wanted to make a ton of money. Actually wait, that’s not true at all. It sounded a lot better in my head. But I still maintain this is an abomination of the film industry.

About The Author

Paul

I think I'm a part of the first generation of journalists to skip print media entirely, and I've learned a lot these last few years at Forbes. My work has appeared on TVOvermind, IGN, and most importantly, a segment on The Colbert Report at one point.

Bert

I think Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up, Tropic Thunder) would make a good Peter Parker. Solid actor, great comedic timing, and he’s got that “nerdy teenage genius” look going for him too. He’s also unknown enough to be surprisingly good.

But I get the feeling “surprisingly good” is a phrase that won’t be thrown around much about this film.

JZ

Are they trying for a Batman Begins type of thing? Too soon. They need to keep (all) the comic series moving forward. There are too many good plots/archs out there to be moving backwards like this.

http://millist.wordpress.com Lorin

They basically want to ‘Dark Knight’ Spiderman. It woulda been fine if 3 wasn’t such a horrible film. I mean it can work with Xmen because we can see how young Cyclops was able to garner his skills. Not so much with Peter Parker. It would be like rebooting the Power Rangers….not so much.

http://mausx3portafolio.blogspot.com mausx3

lame for sony… Sam Raimi was doing a pretty good job… they weren’t the best blockbusters of all the time, but the movies were pretty awesome and accurate for a SpiderMan movie plot/adaptation/acting/concept…
Oh Money!

…

Christian

They need to lay these comic book hero films to rest and focus on something else before we all get so sick of going to the cinema every weekend to watch another hero in tight pants save the world that we can’t even get out the door because of the pile of vomit in the way!

Sigh.

My guess is that Tim Burton takes us all by surprise with his twisted version of Alice and then all the suits in Hollywood takes on every Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen adventure in existence! Then it’s an entirely new situation where there is no place for Spidey and Supe and we can all relax again for a couple of years and enjoy a good film because frankly, I have had enough of super heros. But I guess you had already figured that out by now, because you aren’t as dumb as the Hollywood monkeys in suits!

MacGyver1138

This is a pretty stupid idea. The first film told the origin, so that would be redundant so soon. Even though the 3rd film sucked, they should continue forward from there, if they MUST do a movie. Even if they use different actors, they could continue on from 3.

Personally, I would like to see Marvel get back the movie rights to Spidey, so we could possibly see him involved with the Avengers.

Madison

Dark doesn’t work for everything, and it really isn’t going to work for Spidey.

Mike D

What I read is that another reason Raimi left is that Sony was also forcing him to get it done by 2011/2012. He said it couldn’t be done to have a great story. They need to do this because if they don’t keep pumping movies out, the rights to the Spiderman series go back to Marvel/Disney at some point.

They said the new screenplay is already written and a director/lead will be announced in a week.

http://nerdaverse.com theButterFly

The only way this could work is if they do an “Ultimates” style reboot. However, it is still an awful idea.

http://none Chingo

this is complete bullshit….FTW!!! i cannot believe this…the only way i will see this piece of garbage is bootleg dvd sony will not be getting my money for ruining an already stable FANTASTIC superhero franchise…unbelievable sony unfreaking real…no wonder i didnt buy a ps3 last year when i finally got a new generation console…this is so completely and absolutely absurd…there needs to be some heavy boycotts on this movie pre release..i feel like this is a big “F*CK YOU!!!!” from sony to all the fans

Ellie

They should stop making Spiderman movies with Sam Rami and, more importantly, Tobey Maguire leaving.
It should be like Ironman movies.

sammon1013

If they do the Ultimate Spiderman line correctly (fingers crossed) I honestly will enjoy it better than the Raimiverse. Ultim Spidey had more story, characters, and a much more plausible Green Goblin. Anyone who say otherwise hasn’t read the books. So suck it non believers. And I’ve been doing comics for 25 years, so come with it if you see fit

xXburekXx

im already not liking this new one, origin storys arent as good, at least i find, than the second one, third one is a meh so i can see why they are doing this

Pepe Veraz

shit shit shit!!! when i read this yesterday i thought it was a joke but today i just read it in my local newspaper, so it seems to be official from sony pictures. it sucks, i’m not going to spend my money in other version of a film i saw 8 years ago, and a great film btw.

Perx

Ever since batman begins and dark knight.. studios are trying to make every superhero movie “gritty” and “realistic” and “hard hitting”… i mean come on.. just because something works for the batman series doesn’t mean it will for every superhero… x men movies have already become shit ever since xmen 3.. and now this.. all our hopes ride on iron man 2 now..

Pepe Veraz

and the worst thing is rumors about Robert Pattinson will be the next Peter Parker, for god sake I’m about to throwing up x_x

cystemic

I think this is a good idea *dodges tomatoes*, albeit a little soon but I hated the 3rd movie. It made spiderman seem like a dumbass instead of witty or funny and the endless MJ scenes really made yawn. Plus we’re not really getting any good and original movies lately ie twilight; avatar and sherlock holmes being exceptions these holidays. Maybe this time Peter Parker could be an actual teenager, maybe, plz….
I like sammon’s idea about ultimate spiderman cos that series was done very well in my opinion. The origin was pretty straight forward and it had all the classic spidey villains in a modern context. But I guess no-one from sony would be reading this so we can only hope it wont suck as bad as we anticipate.